Today, March 19th, National Public Radio posted this story, which I want to encourage you to take a few minutes to read and/or listen to in conjunction with the assignment this week.
Read Martin Luther King’s ‘Letter from a Birmingham Jail’ and answer the following questions in your campus cruiser journal.
1. Who do you think King was really speaking to in this letter?
2. Watch the video below of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s ‘mountain top’ speech). How is King like Socrates in this clip, and what characteristics of Socrates does he identify with in the letter?
3. What characteristics of the Christian tradition does King identify with in this letter?
4. What bothers King most about white moderates and how does he respond to that argument?
5. Unlike Socrates, King was both patriotic and disobedient to the nation. What narrative does he construct to justify his disobedience?
6. What narratives of race and racial progress does King criticize? What narrative of race relations does he want to promote in this letter?
After submitting answers to the questions in your journal, respond to the guest blog.
